b&h price drops

The rollercoaster pricing is making me dizzy... almost worth it to buy low and sell high.. can probably get most ofyour money back during the high times and get some fun time shooting with the lenses in the meantime..

The rollercoaster pricing is making me dizzy... almost worth it to buy low and sell high.. can probably get most ofyour money back during the high times and get some fun time shooting with the lenses in the meantime..

The price fluctuations are so fast that you could probably even make money short-selling lenses, because they'll be down again before you have to deliver

Well - it looks like most of the lens prices have now gone back up at Amazon - there are still a few here and there from 3rd party sellers that are below the post price hike asking price, but it looks like the dip was temporary...of course who really knows... time to go out and just enjoy some photography.

It is a shame because inconsistency is definitely not a good answer to trying to build brand awareness/placement in US stores. I wonder if Pentax noticed they let the prices slide again and went to the big stores and "enforced" the UPP? If so, I wonder if all of our chatter about the price dips called attention to it. However it happened, the rollercoaster is not good for business...

The good news is that we can speculate that the K5 replacement must be coming due to it's recent price fluctuations. I just really hope they have some upcoming cameras that just blow us away. Each time the prices go up to MSRP the chatter about moving to Canikon also increases.

People ask me frequently to recommend a camera system to them. I know one guy right now who is using a Sony, but has a big interest in the K-5. He asked me about Pentax lens prices, so I had to tell him they are expensive (I did mention the plastic 35mm f2.4 and 50mm f1.8). A situation like this is a good reason I can't seriously recommend Pentax. Weak excuses to raise prices and then fluctuations that completely negate the past reason (B&H somehow getting a special deal, how does that help local dealers again?). Not to mention, you can't sell your crop equipment at Full-Frame prices even though it probably covers a FF image circle. Pentax, stop jacking with your customers in the USA.

Consider the possibility that B&H had an overstock that they were "permitted" to liquidate by temporarily lowering their prices - a manual version of Amazon's computer-driven price changes (or the old version of what Amazon automated). Perhaps B&H has an order in the pipeline coincident with the K-30 introduction (or something else coming) and their projected inventory was too high.

One of the features of retail channel price management is the ability to work with a Dealer in this way.

As consumers we'll never know the answers. As price watchers we must have our own roadmaps and tactics and strike at opportunities as they arise. Unfortunately this destroys consumer loyalty to the individual Dealer, since we are all shopping on price-only again.

Wasn't consumer loyalty to dealer a stated objective of UPP?

HenryP's commenton the Ask B&H Photo! Forum might offer some insight as to why B&H prices fluctuate from time to time (and might infer what just happened).